


Gansey Week 2019

by imacashew



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, F/M, Gansey Week 2019, Gansey dying isn’t really a spoiler, Gen, but he is a major character who died
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-08-14 03:54:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20185843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imacashew/pseuds/imacashew
Summary: Various writings that were written for Gansey Week about my favorite character, Richard Gansey III.Day 1: ForeverDay 2: QuietDay 3: Road Map to HomeDay 4: New DreamsDay 5: The Compass That Guides UsDay 6: Taking FlightDay 7: Safe & Loved





	1. Day 1: Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 1: Love you til the very end
> 
> “The third time he died, he was surrounded by his family for the second time.”

The third time he died, he was surrounded by his family for the second time. 

His hair was completely white, no trace of brown.

Crow’s feet branched from his hazel eyes. 

There was a creak in his bones. 

For a ley line heart that should have run out decades ago, it seemed right for it to slow down now. 

Blue, his Jane. It amazed him how vibrant she still was after all these years. He supposed it was her connection to the trees that kept her youthful and seemingly ageless, despite the grey in her hair and lines in her skin. 

Her dark fingers twisted with his pale ones, forever strong, as she sat with him now. She murmured to their children next to her. He could see the slope of Blue’s nose on their daughter’s face. Her fire in their son’s hazel-green eyes.

He always marveled how they had gotten bits and pieces from both of them, and yet still be their own person.

A Sargent-Gansey always ready to take on the world. 

He could tell that Blue refused to cry while he was watching them. This was the second time she saw him die. 

They had come a long way since his horrible first impression. He gently squeezed her hand with all the strength he could muster. 

She squeezed back.

Gentle and comforting. 

There was a quiet knock on the door, where Adam and Ronan filed in one after another. Followed by their adopted son, Noah, and Opal, who rushed next to Gansey and babbled in Latin. 

Ronan affectionately bopped her on the head as he croaked, “Hey brat, leave Dick alone.”

He gave a crooked, slightly sad smile, “How are you feeling today, dick?” 

Ronan Lynch, fighter of men, still his best friend and brother after so many years. No one could ever replace him in Gansey’s heart. 

Gone were the days of shaved heads and fast cars, but quiet days at The Barns and surrounded by farm animals of all kinds. His dark, curly hair was more salt and pepper these days, wrinkles on his forehead and mouth, and Gansey always thought this is what Niall Lynch would have looked like in his old age. 

Age had mellowed Ronan. To the point of having quiet twilights on the porch of the Barns’ farmhouse with sweet tea and lemonade. He would be fine, once he was gone. 

He was in the best hands imaginable. 

Gansey let out a wheezing chuckle before it turned into a coughing fit. As he hunched forward, Blue leaned over to rub his back. She whispered gentle words in his ear and kissed his temple. 

Adam had come to sit on his side opposite from Blue, careful not to touch any machines, and pulling Opal onto his lap. He gave Gansey a smile, lines everywhere on his face. 

He didn’t have to say a word. Adam still knew what he was thinking even in the years after Cabeswater. It was if the Magician and the Forest in Gansey’s heart were still connected. 

The years were kind to Adam Parrish. After all these years, he was still a friend and brother that caused his heart to swell with pride and admiration. Going to Harvard, fulfilling his dreams. 

“Henry just wanted to talk to the doctor. He’ll be here soon, okay?”

Gansey could hear the slight twang of Henrietta still in his voice. Adam never tried hiding it with him anymore. 

Moments later, Prince-Among-Men Henry Cheng strode through the open door. Still youthful despite his age, which he would claim his East Asian heritage as an answer. He smiled at everyone, even Ronan who rolled his eyes at him. 

“Doing alright, Third?” Despite the cheerful tone of his voice and grin on his face, Gansey swore he saw unshed tears in the dark brown eyes. Their bond was strong after that gap year together. Traveling the country, the world. Him, Henry, and Blue. 

He loved them all. His friends. His family. 

He was glad they were all here this time. 

They would be alright, his court. He knew that in his ancient forest soul. Cabeswater hummed with him. He would leave his love with them and he’d meet them wherever came next. 

Later that night, as he closed his eyes for the last time and a relaxed smile on his face, he felt the comforting presence of a long forgotten friend. 

The features were smudged, but Gansey knew there was a smile on that face. 

Life.

Death.

_ “That’s all there is.” _


	2. Day 2: Quiet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2: Insomnia/I feel peace at night
> 
> “He would always feel the heaviness under his eyes and in his heart as he lied again and again.”

While he was on the crew team, it was easy to say why he was wide awake at 3:30am on a weekday. Ready to hit the water with the rest of the boys, all of whom hadn’t rubbed the sleep from their eyes just yet. 

It was easy to lie about another all-nighter about an unwritten essay on some obscure topic given by some underpaid Aglionby teacher who didn’t care enough, when the bags under his eyes became prominent features on his young, handsome face. 

He wouldn’t talk about the buzzing in his ears when he’d try to drift off to sleep without earbuds securely in them. He would never discuss the tingling under his skin as he’d wake from another nightmare beneath the swarms that killed him. 

He wouldn’t talk about the nights where he and Ronan would sit awake in companionable sleeplessness, making suggestions to go to the store at 4am on a Tuesday morning and buy something, anything that came to mind. 

Shampoo. 

Toilet Paper. 

Orange juice. 

He would always feel the heaviness under his eyes and in his heart as he lied again and again. 

He was fine. 

Perfectly fine. 

He was a Gansey. He had to be. 

* * *

The moon was full and high, filtered light through the windows, as Blue ran her fingers through his soft, brown hair. 

His head in her lap, he gave her a soft smile, which she returned with her own. His fingers drummed gently on the leather-bound book that was a reassuring weight on his chest. 

Exhaustion weighed heavy on his mind, her fingers bringing it to the rest of his body. 

“You should sleep,” her voice broke the silence. He glanced up at her, eyes meeting. He took her other hand and pressed her knuckles to his cheek. To his own lips where he brushed her knuckles against them. 

“I love you, Jane.”

“That isn’t an answer, Gansey.”

He knew she loved him too as he rubbed his thumb in tiny circles in her palm. She pulled her hand from his to poke him in the forehead. 

“No, I suppose not. I don’t want to fall asleep just yet.”

A yawn escaped his lips. Blue smirked, fingers threading through his hair. The heaviness in his eyes impossible to ignore. With every stroke, he felt his eyes droop lower and lower. 

“You’ve been driving all day,” she continued. “Sleep, Gansey. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

She pulled the book from his chest and rested her palm in its place, right over his heart.

He covered her hand with his and let out a long sigh.

As it always did with her, his mind quieted and he drifted off to sleep. 


	3. Day 3: Road Map to Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3: Road Trip
> 
> “The forest part of his soul bubbled in excitement.”

He let his mouth create the widest smile it could muster as he waited outside Adam’s dorm at Harvard. 

His fingers tapped out the rhythm inside his head as the bright, Cambridge sun beat down on The Pig, making the orange paint glow more than usual.

_ Tap. Tap. Tap. _

_ Tap. Tap. _

_ Tap. _

The forest part of his soul bubbled in excitement. 

The car rocked for a moment before the slamming of the door. Gansey grinned and turned his head towards the other passenger.

“So violent toward her.”

Adam rolled his eyes, smiling back, as he gripped the top of the door, “You look excited.”

The Pig roared to life as he turned the key, sputtering her exhaust to the wind, and shrugged his broad shoulders. 

As they passed through the Harvard gates, he answered, “Why wouldn’t I be? I’m going home with the people I love.”

* * *

As The Pig tumbled down Massachusetts' Route 20 and crossed into Connecticut, he belted out the lyrics of _ Helter Skelter _ as Adam cackled, nearly spitting his Coke onto the already sticky dashboard. 

Adam snorted as he started the beginning of _ Penny Lane, _“Gans, you suck. And how the hell did I forget you liked The Beatles when we hang out almost every day?”

Gansey snorted as he shoved his hand into the fast food bag to pull out fries, “Parrish, you insult the greatness that was the British Invasion. Terribly rude of you.” 

Adam unwrapped a burger and crunched the paper into a ball, “You’re lucky that you’re driving otherwise I would throw this at your head, Gansey. You’re that bad.”

* * *

After over six hours in the car, Adam reminded Gansey that despite having insomnia, he should stop at a motel or hotel and attempt to sleep for the night. 

They ended up in a Holiday Inn Express in New York with Adam insisting on paying for himself. The room was small and smelled faintly of cheap air fresheners, but the beds were soft and comfortable. He trusted his friend when he said that Gansey would might be interested in the pancake machine. 

Adam had long fallen asleep as it approached 2am, snoring quietly in the bed next to him. Gansey had paused in his required reading for History 1155, holding the book to his chest in the dim light.

He gripped his phone tightly in his left hand as it charged near the side table. He glanced at the clock display: 1:58. 

As if he willed it to happen, the phone buzzed and vibrated in his hand, and a wonderful young woman’s face appeared on screen, unruly hair covered in clips. 

The caller ID simply read, ‘❤️❤️❤️.’

He slid off the bed, went into the small bathroom and played with the tiny bottles of soap and shampoo as he answered, “Jane.”

The other voice came through as clear as day, “Gansey. What are you reading about tonight?”

He smiled for the millionth time that day.

“What do you know about the Rise of Absolutism?”

* * *

The next day, they piled into the Camaro with Gansey’s intent of driving through Pennsylvania in one day. He promised Adam it should only take five hours, give or take to make it into Maryland.

Promises meant nothing to traffic jams, Pig Problems, and accidents, which held the young men up for an hour or two. Gansey wasn’t sure if he wanted to go to central Pennsylvania again. 

When Adam suggested taking a detour to Gettysburg as a chance to stretch their legs, Gansey couldn’t be happier. 

(Despite never being completely interested in American History, he enjoyed his tour around Gettysburg and spent the night in a local Bed and Breakfast. He woke Adam early in the morning, bought himself a frappuccino and they went on their merry way.)

* * *

After making his way out of Gettysburg and driving another four hours, Gansey gladly pulled into the University of Virginia campus. His heart sung as he weaved through the academic buildings and dorms, eager to see another familiar face. 

Knowing Blue’s course schedule by heart, he drove to the Environmental Thought and Practice Building. Adam raised a pale eyebrow at him as he parked the Camaro right in front of the main entrance. 

“Don’t you think she’ll be angry?” He asked, throwing one of their coffee cups into their designated trash bag. It was nearly overflowing with fast food containers and soda bottles. 

Gansey shrugged and stared longingly at the double doors. It would be any minute now. He tapped the steering wheel in rhythm. 

_ Tap. _

_ Tap. Tap. _

_ Tap. Tap. Tap. _

He and Adam craned their necks to watch the mass of students exit the building, trying to find her. It took another twenty minutes before it did.

His heart burst when he finally saw her in the crowd that towered over her. 

She hadn’t changed much in the months apart. Her hair was longer, but still full of colorful clips. Her shirts were still layered and artistically shredded, but not as excessive. It was still his Jane. 

“Blue.”

“Well, look at y’all,” she smiled as she leaned on the open door window. “My own personal chauffeurs.”

As Adam got out of The Pig to let her in, she threw her colorful bag into the seat, her person following shortly after. 

* * *

Gansey let out a sigh of relief as he pulled into the long, winding driveway that brought him to The Barns. He could feel Adam and Blue sigh and smile with him. 

As always, The Barns didn’t change. They were homey and magical and all Lynch. 

He brought The Pig to a gentle stop and the car protested, exhaust sputtering. 

Gansey could feel the tension leave his body as he opened the door of his Camaro, leading the others in exiting the car and helping them unload the trunk. 

Almost on cue, the front door of farmhouse slammed open. A streak of jet black flew from the door and a small body with blonde hair covered by a knit cap dashed immediately towards Adam, burying her head into his T-shirt. 

Ronan Lynch came soon after to make his rounds. 

Ronan kissed Adam on the lips, pulling him in an intimate embrace. He lovingly insulted Blue before pulling her into a noogie. 

He then turned to his best friend, “Dick.”

“Ronan.”

The other boy’s mouth morphed into a wide grin and he pulled Gansey into a hug, tight and difficult to get out of. 

That was okay, though. It was one of Gansey’s favorite things, that hug. 

They were home. 


	4. Day 4: New Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day4: Memories/Dreams
> 
> “And when he was seventeen, he found Glendower: a dream achieved and a dream crushed all at once.”

For the longest time, his only dream was to find Glendower. For seven years, the whisper of _ you will live because of Glendower _ echoed in the back of his mind.

And when he was seventeen, he found Glendower: a dream achieved and a dream crushed all at once.

He had asked himself, what he was supposed to do after his quest? A dream ending with a cliffhanger as he had died and come back, Glendower dead in his tomb became a nightmare. 

He had decided to find new dreams. Dreams where he could be himself in a post-Glendower world. 

Blue was one of them. 

She saw the true Gansey underneath the clean haircuts and politician smiles. She quieted his fears and anxieties about the unknown future, grounding him in the present. 

When he was far too deep in his own head, she would pull him back to focus on what was in front of him. 

She was his other half. The sensible one. The fiery one. The eccentric one. The confident one. 

Despite their individual faults, they complemented each other. 

He knew he was going to marry that woman someday. 

Higher education became his second dream. 

Once the gap year was over and the road trip said and done, he realized that he missed academia. The routine of classes and research was far from the long, lazy days in the Camaro with Blue and Henry, but he felt like he needed it. 

He always felt at home with a book in his hands or scouring databases and indexes on his laptop. He missed the feeling of being at dig sites and finding new things to research. 

One day, the realization that he could go to college slammed him in heart and stopped him in his tracks. His parents were overjoyed when they discovered that he had applied to Harvard on his own, but this wasn’t for them. 

This was for him, where he could double major in Archeology and History (with a concentration in medieval Europe) and learn something that mattered to him. He could have intellectual conversations with the professors as he did at Aglionby.

He didn’t stop at just a Bachelor’s in History and Archaeology. He kept going until he had a Masters in Medieval History and a PhD in Welsh History. The latter were done online through Welsh universities so he could stay with Blue in Virginia (Monmouth. Henrietta. Home.) and help her with her own studies. 

(When he got a job as a professor and wrote _ What do you know about Welsh kings? _for the first time in a lecture hall filled with fifty students, he felt like it was all worth it.)

Although it had started when he was a teenager, later on, his made family became the most important dream. 

Blue. Ronan. Adam. Henry. Noah.

His children. Their children. Opal. 

Each of them were a part of him now, patching the parts of his soul that Cabeswater couldn’t fix.

His heart was full of love for each and every one of them and he wouldn’t have it any other way. 


	5. Day 5: The Compass That Guides Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5: Family
> 
> "Where was everyone?"

It was dark. 

And cold. 

He was afraid. Alone. 

Where was everyone?

Where was Ronan? Noah? Adam? Blue?

Where was his family?

He wandered the darkness. 

He was alone. 

_ Wake up. _

It was Blue’s voice that echoed through the darkness and cold.

Roots and vines pulled him back with force, plummeting him backwards. 

* * *

His eyes opened, the light stabbing into them with pain, and let out a raspy sounding gasp. 

Everything hurt. He choked on his breath as everything came back into focus. 

Blue hovered over him, hand on his cheek. 

Her eyes widened in shock at the sudden signs of life. She looked between him and others above him. 

“He’s back.” 

With those words, Ronan and Adam were next to him. Ronan covered Gansey’s heart with his hand and sobbed, tears trailing over his pale, dirty cheeks. 

“You absolute, shithead dick,” he rasped before pulling his friend, his brother, into his arms. Gansey weakly grabbed at the other boy’s shirt, pressing his eyes into the crook of the tattooed neck. 

A cough wracked through him. Breathing still hurt. 

“Ronan,” Adam rubbed Gansey’s back. “Let him breathe, okay?” 

Ronan reluctantly released him, hand still resting on his shoulder. Gansey leaned against Ronan, energy gone. 

His head was too full. Heart was too full. The wind rustled the branches of his very soul. 

For the first time in a long time, he just wanted to sleep. His eyes drooped, head at his chest.

“Gansey,” Someone said to him. “Stay awake.” 

His mind wandered as there was discussion of taking him to the hospital. He barely noticed as they pulled him to his feet, slinging his arms over Ronan and Adam’s shoulders, and Blue hugging his middle.

They brought him back.

His family.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

They came for him. They brought him back.

He felt Blue’s hand on his cheek, bringing his attention back to her.

Her eyes asked him, _ Are you okay? Do you hurt? _

His responded, _ No, yes, but I’ll be fine. _

Of course he would be. They were there. 

Her thumbs brushed away his tears. 

They walked together, a strange mess of awkward-limbed teenagers. He could feel their relief. Their sorrows. Their joys. 

They were his now too. 

They were there to guide him out of the darkness. 

As they’ve always been. 


	6. Day 6: Taking Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6: Wings
> 
> “...all he wanted was the wings to take him away from his fears.”

Sometimes, when he was alone, he could hear whispers echoing at the back of his mind.

_ Make way for The Raven King. _

They spoke to him in Latin. In English. In Welsh. The words of the trees and of Glendower.

The whispers would lull him to sleep and he would dream that he would have wings.

Wings made of inky-black feathers, bursting from his shoulders. They would take him far from Virginia and Washington DC, to far off Britain. To Wales. To South America. To the far reaches of Oceania. 

He would wake from those dreams in confusion, finding himself in his bed in the middle of Monmouth Manufacturing. In Henrietta, wondering what it would all mean. 

In reality, all he wanted was the wings to take him away from his fears. His anxieties. His frustrations. 

But those wings were clipped. Kept him grounded and dug him deeper underground. Deeper and deeper still, making him wonder if he’d ever see the sky again. 

He was closer to the sky when his friends were with him and showed him how much they loved him. In the gestures and words. In gentle or rough touches. In proving how much they _ knew him. _

They were the ones who would chase the whispers away. 

On the good nights, he wasn’t the only one with wings. Sometimes Adam was with him. Or Blue. Or Ronan. Or Henry. They would also have inky-black (or of many colors, depending on who it was) wings bursting from their shoulder blades, taking flight with freedom. 

On the bad nights, he’d be with Noah, free and gliding on unseen wings. He’d reach for him, just out of grasp. Grabbing at wisps that would slip through his fingers, like the sands of time at an alarming pace. 

Noah would look at him with sad eyes before fading into the dark night and he’d wake with his heart pounding in his chest and tears in his eyes.

If he was alone in the darkness, he would close his eyes and think about those wings bursting from his back and taking flight from panic and fear. Then he would whisper, _ Make way for the Raven King. Long may he reign. _


	7. Day 7: Safe & Loved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7: Protect
> 
> "Everything he did, he did it for them."

Everything he did, he did it for them. 

He would lie, cheat, and destroy if that meant any one of them would be happy. 

He would and did die for them. 

To protect them. 

Before the second death, he was often screamed at, whenever he tried to help them. They told him that they didn’t want his protection. They never asked him if they wanted it. 

He told himself that they would want and accept his protection eventually. 

In the end, he wasn't sure if he was doing it for them or for himself. To ignore his own problems if he could solve theirs. 

They told him after the second death, time and time again, that it wasn’t his burden to bear. To shoulder their problems and shield them with his own body and morals. 

After that second death, they protected him in their own ways. 

The gentle murmurs of “Talk to me, Gansey,” in his ear while gripping his trembling hands, an echo of buzzing lingering after he saw another wasp on the windowsill. Of hugs that held him tightly with her head under his chin. 

Opening the drawers at Monmouth Manufacturing to find silvery Epi-Pens spilling out every corner. Sticky notes on the old carton of orange juice in a vicious scrawl saying they needed to hang-out-sometime-soon-don’t-ignore-me-you-dick.

A lingering touch of knuckles before parting ways at Nino’s. The touch slightly longer than necessary. Wordless communication between two boys, two men, that had shared a soul. 

By saying exactly what he needed to hear. A shared grin and shared experiences. A true understanding of their greatest fears. 

They never needed to sacrifice their bodies or morals to protect him. They never had to die for him. Never had to lie, cheat, or destroy. 

They protected his heart in the way he needed. 

With togetherness to make him feel safe and loved. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s the end of my Gansey Week prompts! I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them!
> 
> You can see these writings on tumblr @cashewwritesstuff or send me a message @cashew-butter!

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr: @cashew-butter or @cashewwritesstuff!


End file.
